The scope of this presentation explores the dynamics of risk identification, risk distribution types (Normal, BetaPert, etc.) and the resulting impact upon design teams, project budgets and owners. A case study of a water treatment plant project will highlight the risk bias and the intricate effects upon the design team and owner PM staff from final document preparation through bidding. The positive result in the industry is that more risks are being identified, addressed and mitigation measures initiated prior to bidding. The PowerPoint presentation is attached.

Treasurers Report – Joel Davis informed us the Chapter has $4,035.50 in the Treasury

Opening a petty cash account – The Board discussed opening a Pretty Cash account to provide immediate reimbursement for small expenses. Larger expenses will be reimbursed with receipts submitted to SAVE International. It was unanimously agreed that a Petty Cash Fund of $250.00 would be opened by the Treasurer.

Outreach to UW Engineering Students about VE – This item was delayed for discussion at a later meeting.

PDH training planning for next year – This item was delayed for discussion at a later meeting.

Best Practices Manual for Virtual Meetings – This item was delayed for discussion at a later meeting.

Expanding participation in the Chapter – This item was delayed for discussion at a later meeting.

It was noted that Officer Nominations are commonly completed in March with Elections in April. The March meeting is in Olympia, which may make nominations difficult. Teresa Platin and Steven Thompson’s terms are up in 2017.

Future Meetings:

Joint Meeting with AACEI – February 9, 2017 (sponsor John Boatman)

March 8th Meeting – In Olympia Region (Sponsor Blane Long)

April 10, 2017 – NEED A SPONSOR, SPEAKER and LOCATION – Teresa Platin noted she would ID a location and potential topic for this meeting.

Virtual Meeting Technology/Best Practices Manual: The Virtual Meeting software was set up and operating. Steven provided the login and password for Cascadia Chapter gmail account and an Outlook account. There was discussion of including that in a central repository ultimately on the SAVE International Cascadia Chapter webpage that is not available at this time.

Bylaw Revisions: Steve reviewed the Bylaws and feels they are accurate. There was discussion of term limits – there may be amendments in the future. Others were encouraged to review the Bylaws for anything that requires updating.

Confirming Location and Program for November 9 Meeting: The location will be Vince’s Restaurant in Renton and John Langer will discuss Life Cycle Costing. Ann Jamison is researching locations for the December Meeting. Blane Long will identify the location for the January meeting in the south Puget Sound.

3. Summary of the Board Meeting: All at the Chapter Meeting attended to Board meeting so no summary was presented.

Presentation – Randy Barber – Presentation on Certification PDH’s.

The goal of the changes to this process are to become ANSI compliant. VMA has replaced AVS. AVS will need to complete paper work to transfer it to VMA when the AVS expires. CVS will require a base certification that will never expire, but will require the completion of a specified number of PDH’s every two years to retain the CVS. The biannual requirements are likely to be 20 for VMA and 40 for CVS. The logistical details are still being worked out.
There was significant discussion of what the certification and biannual PDH requirements will be. It is all still being worked through and the final requirements are anticipated to be known by June 2017.
Randy Barber outlined the potential sources of PDH’s and asked others to identify more sources. The PDH’s are organized by learning objective. The originally proposed 40 Learning Objectives have been recently decreased to 27 Learning Objectives. Ideally the goal is to identify preapproved courses for people to take. Then they will be able to identify individual activities and apply for acceptance of them. The details of the program are still being worked through. Anyone can suggest specific courses available through other organizations that may qualify as SAVE PDH’s.
Randy covered the currently proposed core competencies (see attached save_cascadia_presentation for the original 40). The presentation generated a great deal of discussion.

Treasurer John Langer was not in attendance, but Steven Paget reported out for him that the Cascadia Chapter account balance is in the range of $6,500 – $7,500.

Nominating CommitteeTomi Hume and Ann Jamison volunteered to help Teresa Platin. We will have a Nominating Committee Meeting in the next couple of weeks. We have had two people express interest in being nominated … Ann Jamison and Joel Davis. We’ll put out a formal call for nominations via e-mail. All nominees will be asked to provide a brief bio for inclusion in the election material. A Survey Monkey ballot similar to last year’s will be sent to all active Cascadia Chapter Members.

Blaine Long and Michael Schneider are outgoing Board members. Nominations are to happen in March per the Chapter Bylaws, however, it is likely that nominations will be due in April with elections later in April, or May. The new Board members will be installed at the June meeting.

Next Meetings

The April Meeting will be a joint meeting with AACE on a THURSDAY (April 14). The location and topic have yet to be set, but Blane and Teresa will work with AACE contact John Newman of Sound Transit to work out the details. The May meeting will be held in Bellevue at HNTB on the regular Weds, and the June meeting will be held during the Value Summit in Niagara Falls, Canada.

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Chapter Representatives at the SAVE Annual Business MeetingA representative and an alternate representative are needed to represent the Chapter at the Annual Business Meeting held Sunday, June 5, 5-6 PM at the Annual Conference. Another notice needs to be sent to determine who is able to be a representative. Need to confirm that Blane Long will be attending the Conference and will be attending the Chapter Presidents Meeting on Tuesday, June 7, 7-8 AM, or identify who can stand in if Blane will not be attending.

Attendee Sharing

Meeting attendees shared about recent VE related experiences and lessons learned. The group had a lively discussion about the issues encountered and the lessons learned.

David Hamilton gave an informative presentation on the use of construction risk analysis as a VE tool and the application of Monte Carlo-based risk analysis software. David started by discussing the relationship between risk and value optimization as the rationale for incorporating risk analysis into VE studies. He outlined several goals or risk analysis actions which can be implemented as part of a VE study. David described qualitative risk analysis, semi-quantitative risk analysis, and quantitative risk analysis. He explained the difference between uncertainty and risk events and how each are addressed in risk analysis. David then went into detail on the use of a Monte Carlo-based quantitative analysis to determine risk, and provided an overview of the steps in preparing a Monte Carlo analysis using computer software. He explained that with computer modeling of risk, it is now possible to look at multiple variables and access risk relative to cost and schedule. David presented several case studies of construction risk analysis undertaken as part of a VE study or as an independent study using elements of the value methodology. The presentation concluded with a review of lessons learned, followed by Q&A.

David’s presentation slides, available on the Cascadia SAVE Chapter website, are well prepared and include information graphics.

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Special thanks to Board Member Steven Paget for taking these notes on behalf of our Secretary this month.

Treasurer John Langer was unable to attend the Chapter Meeting, but provided a status on available funds. John reported the exact amount, but the Secretary notes captured only the following “we currently have approximately $6000 in the bank”.

Introductions
See list of attendees above. Two first time participants in the Chapter dinner meetings were present.Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer John Langer was unable to attend the Chapter Meeting, but provided a status on available funds. We currently have $6,199.99 in the bank.

First time participants in this chapter meeting and our speaker will have their meals paid for by the Chapter tonight.

Using our New Technology

Starting next month we will be broadcasting our general chapter meetings and monthly presentations live on the web. The September meeting was in intended to be a trial run (viewed by the President from with the meeting room); however, the laptop battery was dead, and the backup laptop did not have full functionality for the webcast. There will be another trial run performed by the Board prior to the October meeting.
Vice President Steven Thompson set-up a Meeting Burner account to accommodate 10 virtual participants at a time for free (with no expiration date). Adding live viewers will result in a service charge. Our upcoming meeting invitations should have instructions and a notice that this will also work for smart phones. Virtual viewers should be asked to RSVP for the dial-in by registering ahead of time, as well as responding to Secretary Teresa Platin’s invitation. Registration will allow remote participants to get one of the 10 spots (first come, first served).
Blane will not be able to attend the October Meeting, so Steven Thompson will run the meeting and Blane will call in.

Save Virtual Meeting

SAVE International would like us to host a virtual meeting in October (date TBD) at noon time (EST) for an hour or hour and half.
SAVE will coordinate with the technology. At this point, SAVE is looking for your commitment to host, meaning getting a good keynote speaker. SAVE will also market the Cascadia Chapter to everyone that we are the host for that month (stand-alone presentation).
The speaker will likely determine which day the meeting is held, as long as the time is noon (EST). Teresa will send out an opportunity notice to the Chapter membership to see if anyone has a topic (and date preference if they offer to speak). The e-mail will mention the fact that presenters gain “Share VE” points towards certification.Upcoming Meeting Locations for the 2015/2016 Program Year
2015-2016 SAVE Cascadia Chapter Schedule (Locations may change if geographic interest is less than expected). Chapter Members are encouraged to provide venue suggestions. Dinner meeting locations that offer a private or semi-private space free of cost are preferred. In that case, members purchase dinner and drinks from the establishment. We are also considering workplace conference rooms and bringing food in.

September 9 – Tacoma – meeting was held and well attended.

October 14 – Seattle – Contact Paul Fuchs to see if interested; Steven offered to find a speaker if needed (but let him know soon).

November 11 – Renton

December 9 – Holiday party location TBD, date may vary

January 13 – Olympia

February 10 – Seattle

March 9 – Everett (Steven mentioned that Matt O’Brien of Boeing can help us find a location)

April 14 (Thurs) – Joint Meeting with AACE (Location TBD)

May 11 – Vancouver, WA

June – during the June 5-7 Value Summit in Niagara Falls, ON, Canada

Last June’s SAVE Value Summit

Blane asked for opinions about the Value Summit from those present at the September Meeting.

Laurie Dennis – overall positive, nice venue, good speakers.

Steve Thompson – nice venue, nice resort, but would have preferred longer conference with more pre-screening of the conference sessions.

Teresa Platin – overall positive, networking very good as a first time attendee, nice hotel/location/food. Particularly liked the Six-Sigma pre-workshop, but found the technical presentations (conference sessions) to be less robust than expected.

Tomi Hume – would have preferred a more centrally located conference and more learning and networking opportunities.

Paul Fuchs – particularly enjoyed the day-long FAST session. New to organization, so not ready to comment on other specific content, but was very impressed to see how much the field is valued and appreciated.

Blane Long – fantastic venue. Really enjoyed San Diego. Found the communication to attendees to be poor. Our Chapter had 3 delegates (including Blane as President), and we were not told ahead of time where to go and when for the meeting. Consequently, our group missed an opportunity to represent our Chapter. Also recommends better vetting of the conference content. What was advertised in the program didn’t always match up with the actual content.

While some liked the opportunity to attend pre-conferences on Sunday, there was at least one opinion offered against Sunday training.
Laurie noted that SAVE did not sponsor the Mod II training this time. SVS organized and held the training on their own.

They would like to have a value engineering topic discussed or presented. AACE will also have a topic such as risk, earned value, 5th & Union development and sustainability, etc. They would like to know if we would be interested in any of these topics.

General Comments
The group discussed the fact that the VE community would be well served to broaden its perspective. VE originated in manufacturing, but has become very civil engineering focused. The opinion was shared that the more they know about Six-Sigma, the more valuable professionals are in the industry.

The SAVE Certification Board is planning many changes in the coming year including some related to moving toward ANSI accreditation. The September Dinner Meeting topic was of great interest to anyone with an AVS or CVS certification, or anyone wanting to learn more about these certifications. Laurie’s presentation of the upcoming SAVE certification changes was informal, allowing for an excellent dialogue among meeting participants. While we don’t usually provide detailed presentation notes in the Chapter Meeting minutes, a few important points are noted below since there is not a formal presentation to post along with these notes.
• SAVE anticipated making changes sooner, but is now delaying until key decisions are made in April 2016.
• Drivers for changes in the certification rules:
­ Many agencies see AVS certification as indication of qualification to LEAD value studies, especially outside the United States.
­ SAVE has been getting complaints of and is concerned about poor Function Analysis quality. Laurie reminded the group that studies that are not lead or overseen by CVS’s do not qualify.
­ The Value Management Practitioner (VMP) certification category has been under-used. Currently there are 4, with one known to be working toward CVS. In the past, with no AVS category, more people went from VMP to CVS.
• As the Board has grappled with solutions, one was to eliminate the AVS title, but they have received a lot of push-back, particularly internationally. They are also considering a 2-step process of either AVS to CVS (with no VMP, and possibly changed AVS standards) or VMP to CVS. VMP currently is designed for qualified practitioners who are unable to conduct enough value studies to achieve or maintain a CVS certification, but are qualified to lead studies independently. The Board may look at keeping the AVS certification, but requiring more than Mod I training and passing the test to obtain it. Perhaps a certain number of studies will need to be conducted first.
• Comments and questions were posed by Chapter Members and discussed as a group or answered by Laurie. Out of practicality, the discussion is not provided here, but the questions and comments are.
­ AVS lead job qualifies if Fn Analysis performed and there is a Job Plan, AND the study is performed under the guidance of a CVS. SAVE Board is concerned about AVSs leading VE studies straight out of Mod I.
o WSDOT is on the “ground floor” promoting VE and leads 90% of their studies with AVSs. It is not their policy to hire CVSs for every study, so this will be a disincentive to conducting VE if the studies don’t “count”.
o Boeing performs their Lean+ studies internally with someone certified by Boeing. How will changes avoid starving the outside industry?
o How will this affect people who like being an AVS?
o How would changes address CVSs who aren’t doing everything THEY should be doing?
­ Are some of the agencies complaining about poor quality VE studies the same ones driving 1-day studies?
­ ANSI doesn’t allow for “Life” certifications – you must demonstrate that you are staying current in the practice. There might be a “CVS-Master” certification instead, which is different from CVS. It might involve more mentoring, but the idea would be to have a distinction from the criteria met by CVS.
­ Might the Board consider different options, like if an AVS waits more than 6 years to move on to CVS, they’d have to take the AVS part of the test again?
­ Could the Board institute a waiting period between testing for the AVS certification and actually receiving it? Require a certain amount of time to pass so it’s not so easy to become AVS?
­ Could the Board require that AVSs get annual memberships, but do not recertify?
­ What do 2009 or earlier AVS’s have to do to recertify? The guidelines are clear for 2010+, but 2009 just expires in 2017.
­ Will the Board be “grandfathering in” current AVSs and not adversely impacting them by new rules? That could be a more palatable way to make the changes for those who have put a lot of time and energy into their current credentials.
­ Boeing’s internal certification was difficult that it was a big deterrent to building the profession. When Steve revamped the program, he made it more attainable; however, he’s raised the “high end” of achieving “Fellow”. This allows those interested in finding out more about the profession and opportunities to get engaged and be part of workshops, but if they find that it’s not for them, they haven’t invested to much time.
• If people are concerned about what they’re hearing about possible certification changes, they should contact Laurie Dennis, and she can pass the comments along to the Board. Decisions have not been made or finalized yet.

See list of attendees above. Secretary Teresa Platin presided over the meeting. We welcomed two new participants to the Chapter Meeting (Daniel Teran and Dennis Van Kirk).

Board Election Results

A regular election was run between the April and May Chapter Meetings, with the following outcome:

• Don Owings was elected to a new 3-year term on the Board (he was elected last fall to complete the final months of a departing Board Member’s term).

• Steven Paget was elected to the Board for a 3-year term, replacing Mark Gabel who had also stepped in to complete the final months of a departing Board Member’s term last fall.

The Board appreciates the other candidates who were nominated and agreed to run in this election. They, and the write-in-candidate, are encouraged to run again during our next election.

By electronic voting after the election but prior to this Chapter Meeting, the current Board appointed the following Board positions to the newly elected members:

• Board Member, Steve Paget

• Board Member-at-Large, Don Owings

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer John Langer was unable to attend the May meeting, but he passed the Treasurer’s Report on to the Board prior to the gathering. Don Owings shared the report, noting that we have $6,846.84 in the Cascadia Chapter SAVE Account. Don pointed out that SAVE International holds those funds since we voted at the beginning of the 2014/2015 program year to be a division of the National organization. As the holder of the funds, Save International receives the interest generated by the money.

Don Owings shared an overview and the results of a 2013 VE Study that he conducted for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 4 Project Development and Environment (PD&E) processes and practice. The District was interested in reducing the amount of time it took to develop and construct transportation capacity improvement projects and asked HDR Engineering, Inc. to facilitate a Value Engineering Study to review their methodology and suggest improvements. Using a phased approach and a series of questionnaires for each discipline with a role in the process, Don explained, his team was able to examine the existing process and identify underlying concerns. His team identified 149 issues to consider and generated 575 ideas to provide value. The ideas were evaluated, resulting in 15 developed recommendations and 13 noted “design considerations”. FDOT implemented all 15 recommendations.
Don’s presentation is posted along with these notes for those interested in viewing.

Following up on our conversation from previous months, John Langer, purchased audio/visual (AV) equipment for use during Board events. John noted that he has only a raincheck for the new projector (at a considerable savings) – the new projector still isn’t in. The Board thanked John for making the purchases for the Chapter.
It was agreed that the Secretary is the repository for all of the equipment (laptop computer, web cam, projector, and screen). Steven offered to help transport equipment if needed, and it was agreed that Board members can make arrangements to get the equipment from Teresa before a meeting if she is unable to attend, or there are other circumstances making this desirable.
Between the April Meeting and the first meeting of the new Board Year in September, the Board agreed to learn how to use the webcam and to be ready to beta-test it in September. The laptop has Windows 8.1 and the home/student version of Microsoft Office. That should be sufficient to run the webcam.
Steven agreed to draft a policy for the use of the equipment before the September Meeting. If Teresa has notes from previous discussion about the equipment policy, she will e-mail them to Steven. One of the equipment issues we discussed during this (April) Board Meeting related to the use of the equipment outside of Chapter meetings. AV Equipment is for SAVE and SAVE-type presentations. Members may use this equipment only to promote the profession, not for personal or business use. There should be a limit on how many days a member may “check-out” the equipment.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer John Langer reported that after the equipment purchases, the Cascadia Chapter treasury is $6,375. The $600 reimbursement for local members arrived from National.

The new method of making purchases and asking National for reimbursement appears to be working; however, National reimburses our state chapter quarterly, but our webmaster (Two Rebels) has been sending monthly invoices.

Web Site

We are pleased with the work Two Rebels is doing for us with the website. Network Solutions is the name of the site provider we used in the past. If we wish to continue having Network Solutions host the site, we will need to pay the $499 invoice (for 5 more years) in mid-May. The Board discussed having Two Rebels host, and decided we should ask them for a proposal to host our website. John made a motion to request a website hosting proposal from Two Rebels, and Teresa seconded it.

SAVE Summit

Several Cascadia Chapter members and at least 3 of the Board Members are planning to attend the SAVE Value Summit in San Diego (June 7th – 9th). Blane, Teresa, and Steven agreed to serve as delegates if there is a vote at the National meeting. Teresa will send out a query to the Chapter membership to see how many plan to go to the Summit. If possible, we will convene the June Chapter Meeting on the grounds of the Summit. A 1-hour meeting (pre-breakfast or post-day of presentations) will be planned.

There were no essay submittals for the Cascadia Chapter’s offer to pay dues to attend the conference. This contest was open to engineering students and Chapter members with an AVS certification. With no applicants, the money was not awarded and remains in the treasury for other uses.

The group discussed whether we want to sponsor anything at the Value Summit. We did this when the annual meeting was held in Portland (within our Chapter Boundaries); however, the group did not make a motion to sponsor anything at the San Diego Summit. There was some interest in sponsoring something more local, such as the following ideas:
• WSDOT recently received a grant to teach a Mod II class. Perhaps we could identify a Mod II class in Portland or elsewhere and pay for some of the attendance cost. 3 days of training = 24 hours (could be approximately $5k in regular labor hours for attendee).
• Mod I (5 days) and Mod II (3 days) are hard to get started because it is such a large time commitment, but if we were to provide a discount or offset some costs, that might be an incentive.
• Defray some of the Membership cost to be part of SAVE, Int. Not sure how that would work, because we get a credit back from SAVE for each member.
• A 1-day training topic: VE; Lean; Cost-Risk Assessment. Can sometimes be hard to do the advertising and get people to show up.
• Team with other groups to sponsor something of interest.

The Board will discuss this again at future meetings, and it was suggested that we review Steven’s bulleted list of potential Chapter improvements.

Nominations for Board Positions

Both Don Owings and Mark Gabel were elected last fall to complete the terms of Board members who departed before their terms concluded this spring. Teresa sent out a call for nominations and reported that she had received 4 or 5 nominations for the 2 positions. She will confirm the nominee’s interest and requests short biographies from them, and then she will create a new Survey Monkey for the election. The survey will be launched shortly, with the voting closing on the Friday before our May meeting. After the election results are determined and shared with the Board, the Board will assign the officer positions, with the following in mind:
• Board Terms are for 3 years.
• Board Positions are for 1 year.
• There is no term limit. (Steven will verify this last statement and see if after 2 consecutive terms an officer must take a term off. If so, we will discuss the implications of this rule).
• The Member-at-Large position is for someone outside of the Puget Sound/Everett to Olympia corridor.

Preparation for Next Board Year

A week or two before the September 9, 2015 Chapter Meeting, the Board agreed to get together one evening or on a Saturday afternoon to prepare for the new Board Year. Among others, topics may include the following:
• What benefit does being a member of SAVE bring (points for certification, knowledge sharing, networking, etc.)?
• What symposiums and other professional societies should we as a Chapter and as individual members get involved in? Submit presentations? (CRAB annual conference, APWA conference, TIB, manufacturing [Steve to look into options])
• Are there any conferences in our region that would be good opportunities for sponsorship, presenters, booths?
• What other locations in the Cascadia Chapter boundaries might we hold dinner meetings? Dan Owings, Ashley Carson (VMS), Rob Stewart (VMS), and Samih Shilbayeh WSDOT might have ideas about Vancouver, WA/Portland area. Tomi Hume and Blane Long might have Olympia suggestions.
• How do we encourage more attendance at the Holiday event? Clients, etc.?

Chapter Meeting (6:20 – 6:45 pm)

Introductions

See list of participants, in addition to the Board Meeting participants, above.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer John Langer reported that the Cascadia Chapter account balance was $6,375. We discussed the following ideas to promote VE related activities locally using some of this money.
• Mod I, II, deferred cost
• Help offset some of the costs for SAVE Value Summit
• Pay to present at other societies/conferences

No decisions were reached. The Board was in favor of discussing Chapter-funded ways to promote VE again at future meetings.

Upcoming SAVE Value Summit, Other Meetings/Presentations, and Awards

Teresa, Steve, Blane (and possibly other Board Members) will be attending the Value Summit in June, and will represent the Chapter as delegates. Ann Jamison, Rahul Nagalkar, and Rob Stewart will be attending. Each will be a presenter. Other Chapter Members are also likely to attend.

Who will be submitting a paper and/or presenting at the AASHTO Conference in Washington D.C. this fall? Tomi is submitting a paper, and Ken Smith is co-authoring a paper with WSDOT. It would be good to post a note about this on the Chapter website. Teresa to contact Blane or Tomi to get information.

We may want to have the SAVE Summit presenters share what they are planning to talk about at our May Vancouver meeting as practice. Eric Trimble offered to see if VMS presenter(s) would like to do this.

There will be a SAVE Canada Meeting in November or December. The group wasn’t sure where it would be held, but at least one person offered the opinion that it would be good to attend if relatively close.

Teresa noted that the Cascadia Chapter would be holding a brief Chapter Meeting at the Value Summit in San Diego (details to follow).

The group was asked if we should continue the Holiday Party tradition in December/January. Those at the meeting who had attended the January 2015 event agreed that it was a good get together that should be continued. We’d like to see more people attend, though. People should be encouraged to bring clients. The Board agreed to discuss this again when we get together as a Board in August.

Future meeting sites for the 2015/2016 Board Year might include the following: Vince’s (this April Meeting location), something by the airport, Tacoma, Renton/Southcenter, South Sound (Lacey), Portland/Vancouver again in the spring.

Blane’s presentation began with the observation that Cost Risk Assessments are vital risk management. All projects should have them. Base cost review is one of the most important tasks, but schedule review may be even more important, as delay can be the biggest cost to a project. Blane continued to talk about the important decision support of Cost Risk Assessment, allowing clients to make good, informed decisions. He reviewed specific tools and techniques.